East meets West documentary

‘Crocodile in the Yangtze’ is a film that tells a story of how China’s first Internet entrepreneur and former English teacher, Jack Ma, battled US giant, ‘eBay’ to build China’s first global Internet Company, Alibaba Group. The “documemoir” written, directed and produced by an American,Porter Erisman, who worked in Ma’s company for eight years, Crocodile in the Yangtze captures the emotional ups and downs of life in a ‘Chinese Internet world’ between 1995 and 2009 when the Internet brought China face-to-face with the West.

An english-language film, Crocodile in the Yangtze is a compilation of period footage shot in the 1990’s-2000’s in Hangzhou, China. Film editor, Giuseppe De Angelis spent hours in editing the footage into a comprehensive and smooth film drawing on 200 hours of archival footage filmed by over 35 sources.

Erisman followed his heart to China and spent ten years living and working there. He worked as a Vice President at Alibaba.com and Alibaba Group in Hangzhou, China between 2000 and 2008. It is clear that from the film, Erisman was a truly integrated and respected member of the Alibaba family. In several scenes, he and Jack shared the glory of the developments that occured in the company.

It is incredible to consider how this footage was captured in real-time and preserved, but according to Erisman, a camera was always rolling behind the scenes at Alibaba’s, even from the earliest days of the company’s formation. The film contains childhood photos of Ma as a small boy and his personal journey from English teacher to a global business leader. It also shows Erisman as a young boy in the US and later as a young adult in China, telling the story of what brought him to Alibaba and what caused him to want to stay.

The story rolls forward on a double lane: Alibaba thrives in a time when social, economic and technological transformation are happening in China and the outside world watches Alibaba with a careful eye, finally realising its strength.

In addition to behind-the-scenes footage, Erisman and De Angelis weaved in archival news coverage of reporters on Wall Street interviewing Ma and assessing his company to potential investors. It is interesting to watch the narrative about Alibaba’s change over time within the financial media.

The film is more than an account of the history of a Chinese internet company. It gives a truly inside perspective on internal meetings and private conversations between Ma and his team, capturing the triumphs, but also repeated struggles to turn a profit.

It mirrors how Ma led Alibaba to startup the business in a small apartment which later grew into a global company of more than 16,000 staff.

One of Erisman’s goals in making this film was to inspire young entrepreneurs with a dream. As the film chronicles, Ma was originally trained as an English teacher, with no background in computer science or business. For that reason, his story is one about a simple man with a dream. That relatability makes this film accessible to everyone.

Konga.com has hosted the technology business community to a special screening of the film documentary. Konga believes that 2014 will be a promising and rewarding year for the Nigerian technology and business eco-systems, not only because there will be growth, but because these sectors will provide solutions to Nigerians at large.